


this is why she falls

by papyrocrat



Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-15
Updated: 2012-12-15
Packaged: 2017-11-21 04:25:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/593431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papyrocrat/pseuds/papyrocrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Describe your work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this is why she falls

This is why she falls: because her brother gives her an order and she obeys.

“This is too serious for the Cupids, and too sensitive to give over to the rank-and-file.” Michael says. “I trust you to monitor this situation directly.”

“Humans mating, brother?”

“Are you questioning an order?”

“No.” Never. “It’s just a little unconventional for the garrison to take this direct an interest.”

Michael is satisfied. “These individuals are both vessels from dying lines. It is imperative that they procreate.”

Anna shrugs. “And you want me to –“

“Just keep an eye on things. The woman may pose some difficulties.”

Difficulties to Heaven are few and far between, especially from humans. Michael’s tapped her because she’s too good a soldier to be intrigued.

So she isn’t.

 

*  


Orders are orders, and a cheery crowd of young women at a tailgate party is hardly a den of iniquity. The vessel comes over to her and asks for a light.

The fires of Heaven are Anna’s for the taking, but it’s much easier to reach into her pocket and pull out a lighter.

Mary offers her a puff, and her vessel warms as she accepts. Anna hands back the joint, but Mary stays anyway, folds herself behind Anna’s shoulder as they lean back on the truck. “Any one of these fellas yours?”

Anna shakes her head.

“Mine, neither.” Mary’s wrong about that, but there’s no need to push; Heaven has all the time in every world. “Want another?”

Anna nods. Their hands brush as they pass the cigarette back and forth, and eventually the heavy sweetness sinks through her vessel’s mind. Mary’s gift cannot corrupt her grace, she knows, but she finds herself wishing it could. This is why she falls.

 

*

 “I’m sorry.” Mary shakes her head until a cloud of feathered hair falls in front of her eyes. “It’s just a hard night for me. My parents have been gone for two years.”

“Mary. I didn’t know.” This is why she falls: because what kind of angel cares enough to lie? “Do you want to be alone?”

“No,” Mary says, too quickly.

“Do you want to tell me about them?”

Mary inhales and almost speaks; closes her mouth again. “My mother was smart. She taught science.” Anna covers Mary’s hand with her own. “Tough, too. She used to teach the eighth graders. And married my dad. On _purpose_.”

“And your dad?”

“Not quite as tough as he thought he was, as it turned out. He lived a hard life, though, and wanted me to live it too. Never around enough to realize I had a choice in the matter.”

“I understand.”

Mary thinks she’s being polite, when she nods and thanks Anna.

But Anna does understand, and maybe this is why she falls.

 

*

“John wants to move in together,” Mary says one summer night as she loops her right arm into Anna’s left.

“That’s good, right?”

“I’m just not sure. I love him, of course, but.”

“You don’t have to be sure.”  It doesn’t matter whether or not she’s sure. Human certainty pales before the will of Heaven.

Mary looks slightly taken aback. “What are you trying to say?”

“That whatever you choose to do, it will be right.” Free will keeps them busy with choices, twisting under guilt and self-doubt. Their options, however, are tightly controlled. Mary’s options all lead back to Winchester, sooner or later.

Mary laughs. “Have you _met_ me?”

“Hmmm, maybe. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Campbell.”

“There’s just a whole world out there. He’s seen so much of it, and I think he’d be happy never to leave Lawrence again. And I-“ Know too much of this world, Anna thinks.“I don’t want to die here.”

This is why she falls: because she smells Lucifer in the damp sheen of sweat on Mary’s face and shoulders, and she thinks nothing of it.

 

*

She meets Mary in the park on a day almost too early to call itself spring. They embrace and skip some not-so-small talk. Anna unpacks a small picnic on the bench between them and tries not to notice Mary’s hands, uncharacteristically folded and still in her lap.

Eventually she looks up; she saves Mary the trouble and offers her congratulations.

“Not too subtle, I guess.” Traces of Michael’s grace crackle in Mary’s beatific smile. Anna knows her brothers, she finds their fingerprints everywhere in the cosmos.

“You two will be happy.” They have little choice in the matter, after all.

“Yes. But no. I mean.” Mary looks almost shy. “Three.”

Anna does her duty, she does not obstruct or dissuade. (Anna knows her brothers, she knows they are everywhere.)  “This is what you want.”

“It is. I didn’t know how badly until it all happened.”

There are other questions to ask, all with the same answer, _yes, yes, yes_. Anna finds them tiresome, suddenly. “Mary.” This is why she falls: because she blasphemes and betrays and tries to stop destiny with a warning. “Angels are watching over you.”

Mary laughs. “Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice.”

No, Anna thinks. “Yes,” she says.

 

 

*  


This is why she falls: because one night one November, she stands in front of a fire and feels only the cold.

**Author's Note:**

> for the Anna/Mary square on my [](http://spnpairingbingo.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://spnpairingbingo.livejournal.com/)**spnpairingbingo** card


End file.
